Soul Reaping
thumb|200px|right|Soul Reaping's area of effect Soul Reaping is the Necromancer primary attribute, so only characters that are primary Necromancers can put points into Soul Reaping. It works by giving you X'' energy whenever creatures die nearby, where ''X is the Soul Reaping attribute rating. Whenever you gain the X'' energy, you cannot gain another ''X energy until 5 seconds have passed. Guild Wars description For each point of Soul Reaping, you gain 1 Energy whenever a creature near you dies. You gain half that amount for Spirits. You can only gain Energy this way every 5 seconds. General description The main purpose of Soul Reaping is to keep boosting your energy as your team kills things. Generally, for normal adventuring play, a rating of 8-10 (including rune and Necromancer headgear bonuses) is plenty, while higher values are recommended for blood or curses builds, and for builds focused on Soul Reaping skills. In 4v4 PvP Soul Reaping is less useful as you will typically see far fewer deaths. There are more deaths in 8v8 or 12v12, making it useful to commit 8 or more points in Soul Reaping. Soul Reaping provides energy when players, NPCs, pets, minions or spirits die (though spirits only provide half as much energy). Soul Reaping triggers on allies or enemies (or neutrals, such as wandering animals). The image in the top right corner of this page shows the approximate range of Soul Reaping, which is roughly the same as the spirit range. Associated skills There are no skills that use Soul Reaping in the Prophecies Campaign. The first Soul Reaping skills were introduced with Guild Wars Factions. With only 5 skills, 3 of which are elite, Soul Reaping has fewer skills than any other attribute. Two Soul Reaping skills are related to energy management, two inflict direct damage, two inflict degeneration or delayed damage and four relate to death, corpses or low Health. ArenaNet has commented on community forums that it had deliberately avoided linking skills to Soul Reaping because they felt its effect was stronger than that of other caster primary attributes (though this was stated before the 5 second delay was introduced). Notes Due to the 5 second delay being based on a 5 second timer that is reset when energy is gained (and not a 5 second window of time), it is extremely rare to ever acquire the maximum energy benefit allowed from Soul Reaping. To do so would require a death at exactly 5 seconds after the first energy gain trigger. The energy gain of at most once every 5 seconds was added in a skill balance. Soul Reaping did not previously have any time delays before you could benefit from a death again. The energy benefit from Soul Reaping will still happen even when in a town or outpost. There is no actual use for this extra energy, as you cannot use any skills. The most common places this will be noticed is: *Any of the Luxon or Kurzick towns or outposts, when the warrior NPCs fight around the exits. *D'Alessio Seaboard (Location) where Grasping Ghouls are being killed on a continual basis. * In Boreas Seabed when the spirit of favourable winds dies *In the Pre-Searing Ascalon, if you stay near the battle which is near Rurik. Deaths due to special events also trigger Soul Reaping: *During the 2005 and 2006 Wintersday Events when the Grentches killed all players. *During the 2006 Halloween Event when the Mad King Thorn killed all players who didn't obey his commands. *When a Ghost summoned via the Halloween Item "Ghost-in-the-Box" disappears. *When a snowman summoned via the Wintersday Item "Snowman Summoner" disappears. See also *Necromancer *Profession *Soul Reaping skills *Category:Soul Reaping skills Category:Necromancer attributes